Lamar football facing tough SLC teams early

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Lamar University football players work out in the weightlifting area of the their practice field. Pete Churton/The Enterprise

Lamar University football players work out in the weightlifting area of the their practice field. Pete Churton/The Enterprise

Photo: Beaumont

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Lamar University football players work out in the weightlifting area of the their practice field early Mondy morning. Pete Churton/The Enterprise

Lamar University football players work out in the weightlifting area of the their practice field early Mondy morning. Pete Churton/The Enterprise

Photo: Beaumont

Lamar football facing tough SLC teams early

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LAKE CHARLES, La. -- If Lamar University football coach Ray Woodard remained unsure about the toughness of his team's early-season schedule, he got a reminder Wednesday.

Seated in front of a plate of bacon and eggs, Woodard read the results of the Southland Conference preseason polls posted on a projection screen in a conference room at the L'Auberge du Lac Casino Resort, site of the league's annual preseason media day.

Listed first, second and third in polls of league coaches and sports information directors are Stephen F. Austin, McNeese State and Southeastern Louisiana. Not only are all three schools on Lamar's schedule, but those are three of Lamar's first four opponents this season.

"Maybe that wasn't the smartest scheduling in the world," said Woodard, whose team will play an 11-game independent schedule before it becomes a football-playing Southland member in 2011.

Unlike this season, Lamar's games against those Southland schools in 2011 will count toward the league standings, so "it could only help us get the experience this year," Woodard said.

Among Woodard's goals when he made the schedule was to play as many Southland teams as possible. Woodard scheduled games against those schools for early in the season because the league locks them into playing conference games late in the season.

McNeese and SFA shared the league title last season with 6-1 records. Both qualified for the NCAA playoffs, and SFA won a first-round game.

Lamar assistant coach Todd Whitten, a former Sam Houston head coach, said earlier this week the first half of Lamar's schedule would be the tougher half.

"We should have a pretty good idea of what we have after those games," said Whitten, who did not attend the media day.

Lamar's fifth game this season will be against a fourth Southland team, Sam Houston State, picked to finish in the lower half of the eight-team league.

Lamar opens the season Sept. 4 against McNeese State. The game, Lamar football's first since 1989, will be played in Lake Charles, La. Additional games against Southland schools will be Sept. 18 at Southeastern Louisiana, Sept. 25 at Stephen F. Austin and Oct. 2 at home against Sam Houston State.

Lamar's first home game is Sept. 11 against Webber International, an NAIA school near Orlando, Fla.

The toughest of Lamar's three early-season Southland opponents might be McNeese, which landed a league-high 14 players on the preseason all-conference first and second teams, also announced Wednesday. Among the all-league players are five Southeast Texans who play for McNeese.

Defensive back Ford Smesny (Dayton) played high school football against several Class 4A high school teams from Southeast Texas.

SFA, which received the maximum seven first-place votes by coaches and SIDs, boasts 12 all-conference players, including quarterback Jeremy Moses, a 2009 Southland co-player of the year. Moses, a Baytown Lee product, holds several school passing records, including career marks in completions, touchdowns and yards.

McNeese earned one first-place vote in each poll. The league does not allow coaches and SIDs to vote for their own school.

Lamar is not included in the preseason polls and all-conference selections because the team is not yet a football-playing league member.

Although many expect McNeese to beat Lamar, Cowboys head coach Matt Viator admitted to some nervousness. Viator, in his fifth season as McNeese's head coach, said he has never opened a season against a first-year program.

"We don't really know a lot about Lamar's personnel, so we'll do the best we can," Viator said. "We tried to research their players over the summer and certainly have tried to do research on coach Woodard and what he likes and what the coordinators like. We'll just have to go in and make some adjustments there."

Sam Houston's new head coach, Willie Fritz, is sure Woodard's Lamar teams will be prepared when they meet Oct. 2. Fritz struck a friendship with Woodard when they coached at separate junior colleges in the early 1990s.

"He's a tough, hard-nosed ball coach, old school," Fritz said of Woodard. "I'm more of an old-school guy also. I'm sure his teams will be indicative of his philosophy."